Anthony Consigli: Worcester should build places for young entrepreneurs to live, work, and play

Sunday

Oct 27, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Anthony Consigli sees a way around The Boston Globe's conclusion that Worcester's revival is proving elusive.

Mr. Consigli's great-grandfather founded Milford-based Consigli Construction. And under Mr. Consigli, it has grown to become the 78th largest construction management company in the country, "with gross annual revenues more than $633 million, a bonding capacity of $1 billion, and more than 600 employees building projects for private and public clients throughout New England and New York," according to my Oct. 17 interview with Mr. Consigli.

The Globe's Oct. 15 article highlighted the gap between the ambitious 2004 plans for Worcester's CitySquare — a $565 million project "to turn 21 acres of blight into offices, stores, entertainment sites, and luxury residences" — and the disappointing 2013 reality. Original CitySquare owner, Boston's Berkeley Investments, made little progress and sold half of its interest in the project in 2009 to Worcester's Hanover Insurance Group, which is responsible for property improvements and recruiting anchor tenants.

Despite its oft-touted 10 colleges and universities, cultural institutions, medical, insurance and biotech companies, and commuter train to Boston, CitySquare's 2004 vision remains unrealized. The Globe reported that CitySquare did get St. Vincent Hospital and Unum as tenants, but that added to the 400 empty commercial and residential properties already on Worcester's market.

The Worcester Business Development Corporation — a nonprofit developer that rehabilitates some of Worcester's properties — is trying to help overcome the lack of what Roberta L. Brien, WBDC vice president of projects, told the Globe is a "lack of something to do downtown." To that end, the WBDC is working on a $34 million plan to renovate the former home of this newspaper to include "pedestrian-level spaces for dining and retail."

Mr. Consigli has great respect for WBDC and believes that Worcester is better off than many old industrial cities. As he said, "WBDC has smart people who know what they are doing. Worcester is not a hot market like Boston, Cambridge or New York City. But it is doing better than other old industrial cities like Portland, Albany, Hartford, Springfield and New Haven. Worcester is good, but not great — I can see by the scaffolding, cranes, and building renovation that things are happening there."

Mr. Consigli agrees with Ms. Brien's comments on CitySquare. "There are signs of economic activity in Worcester — it has an incredible labor pool, compared to other cities, with good, smart, hard-working people. It also has Eds and Meds. But business these days is all about recruiting talent. And to recruit great talent, you need happy employees. And for that, Worcester needs mixed-use development. Cambridge's Kendall Square has that — academia, apartments, restaurants, shops, and stuff to do," he argued.

But to attract capital for mixed-use development, Worcester must overcome a significant economic challenge. Mr. Consigli explained, "The cost of construction in Worcester is not that much lower than in Cambridge. But Worcester has much lower rents. (Therefore, investors will have trouble recouping their costs and earning a profit.) Worcester needs to offer incentives to national retailers and restaurants that could draw in people and raise the rent that people in Worcester are willing to pay."

Mr. Consigli believes that Worcester could tap into a big social change. As he said, "Young people want to relocate into the city center. This is a big social change. But if Worcester is going to tap into this opportunity, it must get the recipe just right. Building costs could be lowered, rents could be improved, incentives could be offered, and/or demand could be increased. There are smart people working hard on getting this right. But they are fighting a mindset in the community of some people who don't want growth."

My more than 200 interviews with young entrepreneurs over the last few years reveal that Mr. Consigli is certainly right about a generational shift in the mindset of entrepreneurs. What I have seen is that people graduating from universities these days want to live, work and play in a city tailored to their needs.

This is evidenced in a noticeable shift from the suburbs to the city on the East and West coasts among startups. Young entrepreneurs are starting companies in Boston's Seaport District, Cambridge's Kendall Square and San Francisco's South of Market district. In the 1970s to 1990s, startups tended to locate more in communities between Route 128 and Interstate 495 in Massachusetts and in Silicon Valley locales such as Mountain View and Palo Alto.

A decade ago, Boston's Seaport District had very little in the way of places to live, work and play. But now all those places abound and it has become a very active place for startups to locate. If Worcester ever hopes to get WPI graduates to start companies in the city, it should make a concerted effort to compete by offering them a similar live, work, and play environment.

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